This is where I bitch.

After a big event I usually have a let down period. Kind alike I feel I've met some goal and there should have been something more at the end, like a ribbon or something (kidding). But after two two weekends of New York and then the party I woke up this morning feeling blah and kinda tired/sad. However, instead of letting this drag down the day I made the mental effort to push it away. Hopefully I can keep this practice up. I am disappointed to say, however, that I got this tip from the Opera magazine. I feel kinda ashamed ;)

Yesterday I met up with mom and grandma, went shopping for a purse for mom, and returned one of the two copies of Heros I got. I picked up Hero by Perry Moore so I can finally read it (and then get onto readign diamond_dust06's fan fic). Plus the Transformers movie and the third book in the Nightrunner series (about a gay ranger in a D&D-esq world). I need to find the second novel before I read it though.

After bringing Paul to work I finished watching Supernatural season 2, which I thought the ending of was kinda anti-climatic. And I finished reading the John Gray novel grandma got me for my birthday. Basically a lot of relaxing. Tonight I might clean the bathroom, but have the new book to read, plus the end of Heros to watch and Angel season 2.

The hope is I can continue to read and watch TV and thus save money from going out too much. Must pay off New York, general debt and save up for Christmas.

Here are the pictures from New York. Feel free to ask any questions about them.

http://www.jasonkivela.com/newyork07/newyork07.html

Should make a New York icon at some point. Also will be printing one of these out for the photo frame in the living room.

My poor boy...

He is working himself too hard for this party. But it will be great. After picking him up from work we went shopping for supplies. Then he worked more on his gravestones that are slotted for the yard. We tried to carve pumpkins (he's plann looks really cool) until I broke the carving knife. So until I buy a new one today that is on hold. He decided to try and get something done and moved onto cookies, only to find out that I didn't own a rolling pin or cooling racks. He had to use an empty vodka bottle. I have no idea when he went to bed, but there are a lot of cookies in the kitchen now. I went to sleep at 2:30am after breaking the knife.

Kiki came over after volleyball and her and Tom helped me put up the last valence. I will take pictures at some point. So the living room is finally done. Then I moved the spare bed back upstairs and cleaned.

Volleyball was crapy, we were tied for 3rd place, but didn't play well and lost all three games. We could have beaten them too.

Tonight I'm gonna try and get out to Liz's birthday party, between volleyball and party work.

Hopefully I'll get the pictures from New York up soon. We were supposed to burn them to CD for me, but we forgot.

A bit late on this post, but there was no time.

Sunday we slept in a bit and then headed to Central Park to meet up with Wendy, Drew and James. On the way I got breakfast in a small hole in the wall dinner, honestly, who puts a cup of coffee inside the bag with the croissant? I got my compass points mixed up, so it took us a while to find the Wymans, but eventually we did and headed into the park. It's very pretty, not too many people. We walked to a restaurant called the Boathouse on The Lake (that's what its is called--there is also a body of water called The Pond). The place was busy and too long to wait for a table, so we sat in the open air bar area next to the water, had drinks and appetizers (chicken and shrimp kabobs and a cheese/fruit plate). After that we wondered through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lots of cool greek statues and an awesome Egyptian section too. We headed over to a castle on the north side of The Lake then called Belvedere Castle, then wondered though a heavily wooded (and the perfect place for an ambush) on the way to Bethesda fountain. We followed the main walkway out of the park after having a snack at a push vendor cart. We left the park, Wendy and I drooled at the Apple store on 5th and then we went into FAO Schwartz. They had life size stuffed dragons from Harry Potter, along with unicorns, pegassi and Aragog. We got there in time to see the last performance on the floor piano that you see in Big and then the store closed. James was great all day, hardly cried, just slept in the backpack Drew had for him.

After leaving the Wymans, we went back to Rockefeller Tower because the last time we went it was too late to go to the observation deck. We looked at the city at night from the top, took some pictures and then had our picture taken professionally. Dinner was at a cute little italian place a block from the hotel that had open air seating, and then we went down to The Stonewall Inn again for drinks.

Monday we got up, packed, checked out and then left our luggage at the hotel while we got some last minute shopping in on 5th Ave. Spent lots of money, but it was worth it, I think. I wanted to get a Peter Hero's shirt from the NBC store, but they didn't have any yet. We took a shuttle to the airport, found out our plane was delayed, so wasted 3 hours in the airport. Then the plane from Milwaukee was delayed, so we didn't get home until 11.

This morning I was woken up by gas line construction at 7am that was taking place in my lawn. Now I'm at work and trying to figure out what pile on my desk is more important than the others and organize my week. Paul and I have a ton to do for the party on Friday, so this week will be crazy. I think I might take November off, need a break. :)

Trip was awesome, happy we went, will deal with fall out as it comes.

All of the pictures are on Paul's camera, so I will get them from him and post soon.

Day 2...

We got up early and on time to breakfast being delivered by room service, then took a cab down to Battery Park to take the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island boat tour. It stops at both islands and there are tours and things on each, but since one can't go up into the statue anymore and neither of us knows which of our relatives might have been in the Ellis Island records, we opted to just stay on the boat. The weather was beautiful all day and the boat ride was fun.

After that we wondered up to Wall street to see the New York Stock exchange (Paul is a little bit of a finanical nut) and then over to Ground Zero. The entire WTC area was blocked off for construction for the new tower and the monuments, so we didn't even get to see the site. We wondered north to the Tribeca neighborhood where we had dinner reservations, but the walk was shorter than we expected and had way to much time to wait. So we cabbed back to the hotel and then went shopping at Tiffany's (Paul got a very cool chocker), Armani Exchange, Prada, Louis Vatan, and other stores of the nature. I had a hot dog from a street vendor for lunch, which was pretty cool, and tasty.

We then went back to the resturant where our reservations were and I had some of the best sea scallops I've ever had. Just wonderful. Dinner went a bit long and we were rushed to get back to the hotel, change and get to Wicked before it started. We managed it though and the show was awesome. I think I'll get the soundtrack some time. I liked the story better than the book, actually and the set was just amazing. We got a poster signed by the entire cast who's proceeds went to AIDs research. By then my feet were killing me, I'm sure if I lived here I'd be in so much better shape from all the walking. We couldn't get a cab and the walk was just too long, so we hailed a bike/rickshaw driver and took it back to the hotel. That was quite and experience.

We changed and then headed out to see more of the night life. We went to The Stonewall Inn, a famous gay bar in on of the historically gay areas, where the first riot for gay rights took place. The gay movement basically started there. The bar was small but nice and I grabbed a snack (all the walking is making me hungry all the time) at a local pizza place, which was really good. Bars here close at 4am, but we only made it to about 2 when we had to go home and collapse from exhaustion.

We slept in a bit today, and am now off for breakfast and to meet up with Wendy, Drew, and James in Central Park. Yeah, more walking!

First day in New York. Paul is taking all the pictures, so I'll link to his later. We flew out at 6am, the trip was kinda hurried, but nothing went badly. Had to sit around a bit for the shuttle from the airport to the hotel, but not too bad. After checking in we walked to Macy's and the Empire State building, looked around, took pictures, I bought a totally cute bag. We ate at a small chain deli, my food was good. We were pretty tired so we napped a bit, then walked down to Time Square to see the sights. Ate at a nice Italian, had awesome Lobster Ravioli. Then we checked out Rockefeller center and the NBC building. After changing at the hotel we hit up a gay bar called Splash. It wasn't amazing, I think both of us were expecting "New York Night Life!" But it was a decent place, kinda a mix between Club 5 and Babylon from Queer as Folk. Drinks and cover were expensive (everything is expensive), but I had a good time.

Lots planned for tomorrow, will try and post again tomorrow night.

Was crabby and tired all last night, feel bad cause I wasn't much company after Paul got home. Added to that the fact that the only time we really spend together during the week is from like 11:30 to 2am... I'm not happy with myself.

Volleyball last night was boring, other team sucked. There seems to be a huge range of skill on Tuesday's now. We are upper middle, due to that one night where we totally sucked. Wanted to go to the B-side 25th anniversary party with Kiki and co., but was good and went home to save money. This being responsible things sucks, and I foresee like 3-5 years of it to get financially where I wanna be. Not a future to look forward to.

On the boring project at work, hope that we get something in on the interesting one. Three days and we go to New York. The idea of getting up at 4am to go to the airport dose not fill me with joy, I just hope I'm not too tired when we get to New York on Friday to do something.

Weekend went well. Got to mom and dad's late Friday night, chatted with mom and my sister for a bit. Woke up earlish (as is usual up north) and went out to the lake as it was park work day. Helped move the picnic tables to their winter storage and cleaned up the tress that my dad cut down because they were dead. After that we headed over to grandma's house to lay some stones on a hill that was washing away with the rain. Dinner was late, there were about 10 people there. We had buffalo to eat and sauna after. I got a book, a skill saw, a best buy cards and some candy and cookies.

Sunday we went back to the lake to close up our cabin and split the wood that we had taken from the tress from the day before. A weekend of physical labor, while not terrible, is a good reminder of why I work at a desk. We ate lunch at a bar on the lake and then I drove home, arriving around 6:30. Had dinner at the Concourse with Paul and crashed kinda late.

I reported for jury duty this morning. I was in a pool for a 1st degree murder and armed robbery case, but since it was expected to last until Sunday, they let me go due to the tickets I have for New York. I had lunch at the Shamrock where Glenn shared some tips about visiting New York with me and am now at work. I would have liked to have been in the jury, I think it'd be interesting and possibly fun. Nexy time I can hope it happens.

This week and next week I have been on call for jury duty. I've never done it before and I think it would actually be fun, except I have all those non-refundable tickets to New York for next Friday. Well my number was called up so I have to report on Monday. I will go and if it looks like I will be picked I will try to explain my situation to someone, nicely. I read up on it a bit more today and I guess yesterday I needed to submit a request in writing to try and get out of it do to my plans. But they called up like 200 numbers, so I probably won't get picked. If I do I hope they will let me out, or promise me that the trial will be over by Thursday.

I hate skipping out, this is one of those things that is important to our society and I would like to do it. Maybe I'll be picked again. Interestingly enough, my dad is on call in his area for the same period.

Odd that, unless it was "pick names with K week." *grin*

Very odd, Monday night I stayed up latish to watch Grey's season 3 with Paul and slept really well after. Last night I went to bed like 2 hours earlier and this morning I'm all tired. Doesn't seem like I slept different, but I'm kind of drained today.

Volleyball last night was pretty good. We didn't play as well as I know we can, but we played the top ranked team and took 2 out of 3 (and should have won the thrid game too). We were in a 3 way tie for 2nd place, so beating the 1st place team should keep us up there, depending on how the other two teams we were tied with did.

Ankle is doing fine, though I still ware the brace, just in case.

Work continues, etc.

I talked with Em last night for a bit via texting. She might be moving back soon because there are things she needs to do at the Madision office. They want her to move to DC permenantly, but she misses her family and friends. And she's to busy out there to make new friends. So she might not be able to met Paul and I in New York, but will be back home, so I can see her anyway. I miss talking to Em.

Today Paul is off golfing with Jess, I hope the weather holds for them.